Wan Mikhail's 1st Birthday Bash

Our baby turns 1.
As all parents agree, that's an occassion to be celebrated :)

I wanted to have a small birthday bash with friends and family, preferably one where we can all just eat while the kids swam and played and just... you know... be merry!

And alhamdulillah, it turned out as I imagined :)


We sent the invites about a month before the date. Via snail-mail and e-mail. It was a simple card, half A4 size, printed on both sides. One side was a photo reel of Mikhail from month 1 to 11 and an empty box (come see him live!) for month 12. The other side were the details.

Theme: SPLASH OF COLOR!

The Invitation Card (Designed by Mommy&Daddy)

The day of the party was nice and sunny. Perfect pool weather, thank GOD. I was rather worried that it would rain (being November) but it didn't so the kids had maximum pool-time.

After making the final touches, we all got ready in our little family t-shirts :)
Mikhail's had "wanmikhail" on it.
I had "themommy" and of course, Wan had "thedaddy"

Mikhail was observing all the fuss and fixed a serious expression on his face the whole time. He must've been a bit confused at all the colorful balloons and why his toys were all on the floor and why everyone kept pointing cameras in his face.

Mikhail's Serious Face (they say he looks like me when he does this...

At around 4, the guests started arriving.
I was so pleased with the turnout...
Friends, family, long-lost schoolmates, unimates, blogmates, officemates... To list all of you would take another entry on its own!
Everyone was such a fun bunch and made the day even merrier.
Thanks so much for coming, people!!

The children wasted no time to have their fun.
Some of 'em went straight to the pool while the others occupied themselves with the toys in the play area.

The Play Area

Overview of the 'Splash Area'

I had initially planned to prepare the food myself.
Yeahhhh riiighhhhttt....
But after Wan and my mom suggested that perhaps it's best to cater instead, Mom made arrangements with Auntie Kathy for the food preparations. This was an excellent call as it left me PLENTY of time to concentrate on other stuff and also to mingle with the guests.
And yes, I would not possibly have been able to cook for 100 people!

We had mee rebus, roti jala and kari ayam, mac n cheese (a fav among the kids AND their mommies), ayam goreng rempah, Grandma's pulut kuning, finger foods, ais kacang, teh tarik, assorted desserts and beverages and little packs of nasi lemak (courtesy of Anjang, Wan's aunt).

The Food (trying to abide by the theme "Splash of Colors"

Bon Apetit!

Mommy & Mikhail grabbing a bite

Daddy Videotaping Memories

Keropok also can be colorful mahhhh...

Every parties gotta have 'em!

It was a great afternoon of eating, drinking, swimming, playing, laughing, gossiping (young mommies are still women, you know... hehehe).
Later, we had the cake-cutting ceremony (chewah, macam kawin plak).

The Birthday Cake (see, the candle is supposed to look like the cake... heheheh

With the Mommies and Babies

Blowing the Candle

Before the guests left, we asked them to sign on the banner.. Just as a keepsake for Mikhail when he's older.
The family signed it too and I'm sure Mikhail would be touched by many of the sweet things that were scribbled onto his banner.

Signing the Banner

We had a lovely time and I do hope everyone else did too.
The party was to celebrate the best thing that has ever happened in our lives...

Our little baby... making his journey to toddlerhood...
Wan Mikhail...growing up...

I love you, sweetie... Happy Birthday...

Pictures Courtesy of Tracey Jan Francis and Nadia Zainuddin

WAN MIKHAIL'S 1ST BIRTHDAY

(Wrote this on Mikhail's birthday but forgot to click 'publish')

This day last year, our darling baby boy was born.

I know it's cliche, but it really feels like just yesterday we welcomed him into our lives. When I read the post about his actual birth day, I could still feel the roller-coaster of emotions I had felt.

Now, a year from that day, we can't imagine life without him. We are always so thankful to Allah for His blessings. There's really so much I want to say about this little one we call Mikhail, but I'll save that for another post, when I have more time.

For now, I'll just share how we spent his 1st birtday...

I took 3 days leave to commemorate my baby's 1st birthday. As his birthday falls on a Wednesday and his party was scheduled for Saturday, I thought, what the heck, lets just take Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off! Heheheh!

On 21.11.2007, Mommy and Daddy took Wan Mikhail for a trip to Aquaria KLCC.

Our first stop upon reaching KLCC was to head to the bank and open Mikhail's savings account. It was Daddy's wish to open his son's first account on his first birthday. We spent around half an hour to get that done and headed straight to Aquaria.

We had a lovely time there! Mikhail was entranced by all the creatures (especially the tortoises and the tree squirrel). We took pictures by the dozen and even posed for one with a yellow snake.. Mikhail didn't seem too impressed with the serpent (although it took us some time to coax a semi-hysterical Daddy to join us in the shoot... hehehe)and when we placed Mikhail's hand on the snake, he promptly scratched it. I guess the snake must've enjoyed the back-rub as it just lay there without moving an inch.

We also got a caricature artist to draw a caricature of Mikhail. It turned out pretty nice.

After we got tired of the fishes, we walked back to KLCC. Halfway through the short tunnel, Mikhail was fast asleep on my shoulder. Transferred him into his stroller and we walked around KLCC and sharing a drink, chatting while he slept. We were both amazed at how fast time has flown... Our little baby is a year old! A big boy...

When His Highness woke up from his nap, we took him to Secret Recipe for his birthday tea. He was treated to a plate of yummy macaroni and cheese as well as a tall glass of chocolate milk. He had his snack while going through his new picture book which I had picked up earlier at M&S.

After a long day, we headed off to Atuk and GrandMa's house (my parents place) for them to give the birthday boy a kiss. There was a mini-cake with a mini-candle for Mikhail to blow (with lots of help from Mommy) and with that, the perfect day ended.

Needless to say, we all had a lovely LOOOONNNGGG sleep that night :)

I'm pretty sure I missed out on a lot of details about Mikhail's first birthday. But it doesn't matter. The gist of it is that he spent it with his Mommy and Daddy and we all had a lovely time :)


Got my pen, a copy of my MyKid... am all set to register for my savings account now.


Mikhail getting familiar with the sea folk... He seemed to like the tortoises, and the feeling was mutual...


With the caricaturist (is there such a word?)


A snake? Ho hum....


Our One-Year-Old Son fast asleep at his favourite nap-place... Mommy's shoulder


Mac n' Cheese.... Yummmmm.....


At the play-area in the KLCC Babycare Room. Uh.. Mikhail, get your hand out of her skirt please!


Hanging-out with Daddy while Mommy picked him a new pair of shoes from Isetan


Happy 1st Birthday, Wan Mikhail. Mommy and Daddy loves you very much!

Aidilfitri 2007 in Pics Part I

SELAMAT HARI RAYA MAAF ZAHIR BATIN

Our little family's 1st Aidilfitri
Mikhail doing his impression of a puffer-fish...

THE DUIT RAYA SAGA"Cool... what're you giving me, Atuk?"

"Hey... Why is everyone looking at me like that...."

"Why are you all screaming? What did I dooooooo? Waaaaaaaaaah!!"

"I am STILL upset, okay. Hmph... Am never touching one of those things again!"

Can't take my eyes of youuu
"I think she likes me... Heeheee"

Evil Aunt drapes selendang over Mikhail's head
"Ala... letak la selendang ker, riben ker, lipstick ker, I'm still Macho-Man-Mikhail"

Off to Taiping and Cameron Highlands!
"I got my Aboo and my pack of biscuits. Yeah, am all set for the trip."